In a joint report session on policies and work for 2010 held at the guesthouse or the Youngbingwan in Blue House on December 23^rd, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) presented to President Lee Myung-Bak its strong anti-corruption plan to evaluate integrity of high-ranking public officials.

ACRC’s work plan for 2010 includes unprecedented direct and technically advanced anti-corruption policies. The ACRC is mobilizing all authority and power it has to enhance integrity in public service.

The planned integrity assessment for high-ranking officials is expected to have a more direct corruption control effect on public service than the current Integrity Assessment for public organizations. This is because when public officials are evaluated individually, they will care more about integrity while performing their work of duties.

Korail (Korea Railroad Corporation) has been implementing integrity assessment to great effect for its senior officials of level 2 or higher since 2007. Thanks to the integrity measure, Korail, which used to perform very poorly, was ranked 2^nd in just 2 years after integrity assessment for senior officials.

It is also unprecedented that under the proposed plan, public organizations that bring up the rear in integrity assessment for 2 years in a row will be penalized. The results of Integrity Assessment for local governments and local offices of education will be taken into account in the evaluation of such organizations by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Doing so will go a long way toward fighting corruption in the local governments.

If these plans are put in place, any public official or public organization that do not make efforts to boost integrity level cannot survive in public service.

The ACRC plans to dispatch its traveling e-People team to much larger number of local areas, and strengthen on-site mediation meetings. This is part of its efforts to expand its role of visiting ombudsman by meeting people and listening to their difficulties.

The ACRC plans to introduce re-examination of administrative appeals for those who file an appeal of dissatisfaction against administrative appeals commission in cities and provinces so that their appeals are re-examined by the Administrative Appeals Commission under the Prime Minister.

Up until now, those who are not satisfied with a ruling by administrative appeals commissions in cities and provinces had no other choice but to resort to litigation that costs a lot of money. Thanks to ACRC’s re-examination plan, more people will have a chance to relieve their rights.